1600 Florence Villa Gardens - Palazzo Pitti, the Boboli Gardens & Fort Belvedere

Palazzo Pitti, the Boboli Gardens & amp; Fort Belvedere by Giusto Utens (Flemish artist, 1558-1609) who painted a series of 14 lunette glasses of villas & their gardens near Florence,  for the 3rd grand duke of Tuscany, Ferdinando I, in 1599–1602. Annexed to the Palazzo Pitti Museum complex, the Boboli Garden is one of the most famous formal 16C Italian gardens & a veritable open air museum, with a unique architectural plan & dozens of statues hiding amidst the multicoloured plants. The garden has a triangular plan, with two, steeply sloping orthogonal axes, which terminate in the Bacino di Nettuno (fountain of Neptune). The creation of artificial grottoes was an introduction of Mannerist style to Italian, & then to French, gardens of the mid 16C. Two famous grottoes in the Boboli Gardens of Palazzo Pitti were begun by Vasari & completed by Ammanati & Buontalenti between 1583 & 1593. The lemonscent is always in the air, as the Boboli gardens has a great collection of old lemon plants in terracotta pots. In the winter the lemon plants are brought to the 'limonaia' where they are protected against the winter cold. The Boboli gardens lie directly behind the Pitti Palace & were created for the Medici when they moved in during 1550. They really are spectacular because of the mixture of art & gardens sitting together, side by side, in harmony. The gardens laid out behind Santa Felicita in Oltrarno by the Borgolo family, the name from which Boboli is thought to derive, were bought in 1418 by Luca Pitti. In the mid-15C Pitti commissioned the construction of a grand palace, which is believed to have been designed by Luca Fancelli,with the help of his master Filippo Brunelleschi. In 1549 the property was bought by Cosimo I’s wife Eleonora da Toledo, & became the Medici family’s city residence. Niccolò Tribolo was engaged to design the gardens, & it is probably he who excavated the hill to create the Amphitheatre, a highly successful creation in both perspective & functional terms. It created the garden’s first perspective vista (running north- west /south-east), a prospect that began at the main entrance to the palace & continued across to the hill & all the way to Forte Belvedere. When Tribolo died, work continued under the direction of Bartolomeo Ammannati (1511-1592) & subsequently Bernardo Buontalenti (1555-1635). In the 17C Giulio Parigi (1568-1635) & his son Alfonso devised the second perspective vista,which was to run at right angles to the first, in the direction of Porta Romana.The triangular garden has two orthogonal axes which meet roughly at the Fountain-Basin of Neptune; the steeply sloping avenues run across the central walk & are organised as a series of terraces with smaller avenues, footpaths, sculptures or landscaping elements leading to specific garden features: glades, enclosed gardens or buildings.The visit begins at the fountain featuring the statue of a dwarf riding a tortoise, sculpted in 1560 by Valerio Cigoli (1529-1599). Opposite the entrance is the Buontalenti Grotto,a series of three communicating chambers: the first, with stucco-work decorations, is characterized by pastoral scenes executed by Bernardino Poccetti (1542-1612); the second contains a marble statue group depicting the abduction of Helen by Paris, sculpted by Vincenzo Rossi da Fiesole (1525-1587); the third, frescoed by Poccianti, has a fine fountain by Giambologna (1529-1608) depicting Venus emerging from the water after bathing. Beyond the statues of the Dacian Prisoners, the route through the gardens continues and, next to the rising avenue, passes the Jupiter Garden with a seated statue of Jupiter & the adjoining Madama Garden. The avenue leads up to the grand Amphitheatre & the Artichoke Fountain, whose large octagonal basin is decorated with numerous statues & crowned by a bronze artichoke by Francesco Susini. The great horseshoe-shaped sweep of the amphitheatre was possibly originally conceived as a piece of landscaping, & in 1599, was embellished with steps (still in existence) topped by aedicules with niches containing bronze statues & terra-cotta urns.

By the Renaissance, artists began to paint secular scenes including landscapes, breaking away from the dominant religious art of medieval painters. Partly out of interest in the natural world & partly out of nostalgia for classical Greece & Rome, paintings became valued as symbolic & allegorical objects & as depictions of earthly success & status. The period in Europe was the cultural bridge between the Middle Ages & modern history. The relationship between man & nature was evolving as Francis Bacon (1561-1626) promoted man as "the minister & interpreter of nature." Images began to depict natural landscapes & more formal garden settings, where man was obviously using his intelligence, wealth, & power to shape & control the nature around him for sustenance & for pleasure. Thus, the Renaissance garden became as much as symbol of the owner's wealth & culture as his house or art collection.